SAWADEESIGN

GET TO KNOW SAWADEESIGN, AN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO FROM VIETNAM WHICH IS NOTABLE FOR ITS PLAYFUL CHARACTER, THE COMBINATION OF THE STUDIO’S DIVERSE INTERESTS LIKE MUSIC AND GRAPHIC DESIGN INTO THE DESIGN, AND THE VARIOUS ROLES THAT THE STUDIO PLAYS

TEXT: PRATCHAYAPOL LERTWICHA
PHOTO COURTESY OF SAWADEESIGN

(For Thai, press here) 

When we first heard of this studio, it was quite a surprise for us when we found out that this emerging talent is actually from Saigon, Vietnam despite the name ‘Sawadeesign’ which highly suggests a Thai studio (since it is similar to Thai’s greeting ‘Sawasdee’). But the studio’s title is not the only thing that caught our eye, their daring, resolute, and playful design, such as YAM Restaurant or 303 House, along with their various roles in the creative industries attracted our attention as well.

Without much hesitation, we reached out to Sawadeesign studio and had a virtual chit-chat with two designers at the firm, Võ Thành Phát and Đoàn Sĩ Nguyên, to learn more about their journey, their vision, and the roles they are playing in the field of creativity.

art4d: Why did you name your studio ‘Sawadeesign’?

Võ Thành Phát: We have been asked many times why our company name is Sawadeesign. Some think that the reason is because we are Thai or there are Thais in the company or so on. But actually, it is because Thailand has something that we admire the most even though we have traveled to many countries.

When we first went to Bangkok, we were extremely impressed by the creativity from the architectural design, interior design, graphic design, film, music, and everything. I think Thai people dare to step out of the boundary and do something that I have never seen before. We can feel the dynamic vibe of Thai people which inspires us a lot and encouraged us to open the company named after the ‘Sawasdee’, the hello or greeting from the Thai language. Then we combined it with the ‘design’, therefore our name is Sawadeesign.

One of the Thai artists that we really admire and lately had a collaboration with is Saran Yen Panya. We also admire IDIN Architects. We have been to their coffee shop in Bangkok and we like their design thinking and how they experiment with the materials.

Right now we believe that even though the studio is named after the Thai greeting ‘Sawasdee’, we still have the Vietnamese signature. We are proud of what we have done so far.

art4d: What do you think makes your studio unique?

Võ Thành Phát: We are a team of young architects. All members of our team were born between 1994 to 1999, so we dare to step out of the box and think wider. And we usually define ourselves as the architectural ‘player’ because we always play with shape, form, and space and each project has its own striking elements that people will always remember. So playfulness is one of the words that could describe us.

However, our design is driven by the owner’s needs and human behavior. We think we are just a tool for them to express themselves. And since they have their own stories, needs, or preferred aesthetic styles, every project is different. But in the future, if we find any design language or philosophy that we think will be the best for us, we will follow that.

Another thing is that we do not focus only on architecture, we also love music, graphic design, food, and we combine all of them when we work on the projects.

art4d: Let’s talk about the story of your studio. How did it all start?

Võ Thành Phát: Everything started in 2017. At that time, Nguyen and I were just university students in our senior year. I am one year younger than Nguyen. Before we graduated, we had completed some projects for our relatives and our friends at the university. At that time we started to call ourselves ‘Sawadeesign’ but the office had not been established yet. After that, we kept designing small projects like residential projects or coffee shops and when we finally graduated, we officially established the company.

art4d: Could you recall and tell us about some of the first projects that you did?

Võ Thành Phát: The first project we ever designed after graduating is a house renovation in Saigon. The name of the project is Chiulinh house. Since this is a house of our relatives, we got the project easily and it was a smooth start for us.

After this house, we continued designing small residential projects, and then we did the YAM Restaurant. We finally felt that we made something that really counted. We have always been proud of what we have done with YAM.

art4d: Why do you think this project matters so much for you?

Võ Thành Phát: YAM is a turning point for us. It allowed us to reach another step of our career, encourages us to follow our design thinking and to be experimental and playful.

I have to say that were so lucky to work with the owner of YAM restaurant. He has been friends with us on Facebook for five years but we had never talked to each other before. He always followed us and one day he told us that he would like to collaborate, and that is how YAM started.

In this project, we were thinking about the experience of the customers. The restaurant is in a very noisy neighborhood so we created a black wall made of wood to separate the inner space and outer space. When the customer steps inside, they have to pass the inner yard. It is a place they can sit, relax and have their own moments. That is the reason for the physical boundary.

Secondly, it is about how to enjoy the experience from the yard to the restaurant. The customers have to travel through the iron bridge which connects them from the lower ground to the restaurant above. Using the ramp, the customer will experience the transition smoothly. It is different from climbing the ladder step by step. The iron bridge and the black wall are elements that people always remember when they talk about YAM.

art4d: Is there any other project that you are really proud of?

Võ Thành Phát: 303 house is another project that we are proud of. You can call it another milestone for us because you can see the difference in the design. And the owner of the project who is a pilot is also my all-time favorite owner because he let us do whatever we wanted and build exactly like what we suggested in the design. Even though we spent almost a year on the project for three design phases but the final result was really satisfying.

art4d: One of the things we found quite interesting about your office is the music video of you guys are rapping about the projects. What is it really about and what is the idea behind it?

Đoàn Sĩ Nguyên: We think music is one of the mediums to describe the architecture. Since we love rap music, we decided to write a rap song to express what we think about the project. We wrote a song called ‘MIA OI’ that describes the ‘Mía Ơi project which is a juice shop in Saigon.

Võ Thành Phát: In Vietnamese, ‘Mía’ means sugarcane. ‘Mía Ơi’ means ‘Hi sugarcane’. The song is describing the idea of the project that has curve benches in the yard. The curve bench is inspired by the Mekong river and the song is about how beautiful and fertile the Mekong delta is. We chose the Mekong delta because, for Southern Vietnam, it is a hub for the people to export rice to the world.

Đoàn Sĩ Nguyên: We shot the music video ourselves and also had a music producer from Thailand make the beat for us.

art4d: It seems like you have your own media crews.

Võ Thành Phát: Yes, apart from the design team, we also have the media team who is responsible for videos or construction photos. When we first started shooting videos, it is like a travel diary for us. But since the recent severe pandemic breakout, we have watched a lot of Youtube videos and wondered about thought, why don’t we start vlogging about how we work so people can understand the process and the value of design. We want to communicate to people how important design is and what benefit they will receive when they have architects design their houses. Even though there are already many design-related media in Vietnam, most of them are mainly focused on the design aspect. We try to not focus too much on the design but more on how we have and how can we live with architecture.

art4d: Besides designing, seems like you guys have worked on many other projects.

Võ Thành Phát: We hosted the Borderless exhibition in 2020. Our intention was to invite architects around Southeast Asia to gather at Saigon. Even though in 2020 the pandemic had already started in Vietnam and we could not have them here physically, we asked them to send us their project as well as their project models and an introduction video to be displayed at the venue.

Our intention for hosting the exhibition was to encourage design students or design lovers to step outside their boundaries and see what the other countries or the other studios have done.

And what we received from the exhibition was a connection between the architects around Asia. Some of whom we haven’t met before but they warmly welcomed us and we still keep in touch with them. Secondly is the feedback from the visitors. The exhibition gave us a great opportunity to exchange ideas with them.

art4d: What is your plan for the future?

Võ Thành Phát: In the future, we will try not only to work on architecture but also collaborate more with artists or designers in other fields.

Đoàn Sĩ Nguyên: And if everything finally gets back to normal, I think we will try to make more music videos about our projects and activities, and we will travel overseas to make architecture review videos. To tell the story of architecture that one has experienced is very different from describing the picture online. I hope it will encourage young architectural students in Vietnam to go outside and see what is happening in the world.

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